Archived: The Elixir Clinic

Updated 17 June 2019

he Elixir Clinic provides medical advice and treatment based on diets, nutritional supplements and detoxification. It offers a blend of ecological medicines such as IV Vitamin Therapy to both adults and children.

The clinic is open 9am to 5.30pm Tuesday and Thursdays.

Patient facilities are provided on the third floor of the building, which can be accessed by a lift. The staff team include a lead doctor and a personal assistant. They also use the nurse who attached to a separate service within the building.

The provider is registered with CQC to carry out regulated activities of Treatment of disease, disorder and injury and Diagnostic and screening.

How we inspected this service

Before visiting, we reviewed a range of information we hold about the service and asked the practice to send us some information about the service which we also reviewed.

During our visit we:

• Spoke with the doctor and staff who provided the nursing services.

• Reviewed comment cards where patients had shared their views and experiences of the service in the days running up to the inspection.

• Reviewed documentary evidence relating to the service and inspected the facilities, equipment and security arrangements.

• We reviewed a number of patient records alongside the doctor. We needed to do this to understand how the service assessed and documented patients’ needs, consent and any treatment required.

To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we always ask the following five questions:

• Is it safe?

• Is it effective?

• Is it caring?

• Is it responsive to people’s needs?

• Is it well-led?

These questions formed the framework for the areas we looked at during the inspection.

Updated 17 June 2019

This service is rated as Good overall.

The key questions are rated as:

Are services safe? – Requires improvement

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? – Good

We carried out this announced comprehensive inspection of The Elixir Clinic under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the service was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The Elixir Clinic provides medical advice and treatment based on diets, nutritional supplements and detoxification to people working or staying in London.

This service is registered with CQC under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 in respect of the provision of advice or treatment by, or under the supervision of, a medical practitioner, including the prescribing of medicines.

The owner is the registered manager. A registered manager is a person who is registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Six patients provided feedback about the service. All the comments we received were positive about the service, for example describing the doctor as dedicated and professional.

Our key findings were:

• The clinician was aware of current evidence based guidance and had the skills and knowledge to deliver effective care and treatment.

• The provider had systems in place to protect people from avoidable harm and abuse.

• The service had arrangements in place to respond to medical emergencies.

• There was a clear vision to provide a personalised, high quality service.

• The patient feedback we received indicated that patients were very satisfied with the service they received.

• Staff felt respected, supported and valued.
• The service did not have any systems in place to check that adults accompanying a child had parental authority

The areas where the provider must make improvements as they are in breach of regulations are:

• Establish effective systems and processes to ensure good governance in accordance with the fundamental standards of care.

The area where the provider should make improvements is:

• Review quality improvement processes to include clinical audits.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth BM BS BMedSci MRCGP

Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care